So now that we know about the Amonkhet gods (or at least most of them) how do you feel about them compared to their...

So now that we know about the Amonkhet gods (or at least most of them) how do you feel about them compared to their Theros counterparts?

It sounds weird but to me they don't really feel like gods. They just feel like really pushed creatures with some drawbacks plastered on. I think part of it is that they don't have the word "god" in their name. They feel sort of... insignificant? I don't necessarily mean their powerlevel, just what they feel like to me. I can't really describe it, but the Theros gods came across as more than just creatures. The Amonkhet gods are so quaint in comparison. Maybe if they were more like the Myojins I would have liked them better. Perhaps not constructed playable, but high cmc super flashy powerful creatures.

What do you guys think? Also post if you like them. This is not supposed to be a "let's shit on Amonkhet" thread.

They feel like the Theros gods each gave up the bit of power they have in their pinky and created the Amonkhet gods out of it.

They're not incredibly powerful, but I like them. Snek is at least arguably playable and I kind of like Birb. I'm excited to see what Dundee does

I think it makes sense though. Bolas probably created them with the knowledge that they could try to betray him and wanted to be sure he could handle them.

The Theros gods look like gods. The Amonkhet gods look like... small giants? Except for maybe Kefnet, their art is unimpressive, and yeah, the name doesn't help.
The devotion mechanic of the Theros god is also more god-flavoured.

Amonkhet gods look like constructs created to imitate gods. I wonder who could be behind it though...

I don't think they're that much worse than any of the theros gods, Kefnet probably leaves the most to be desired. Hazoret can be a real problem in the right deck but tough to say if an improvement over Purphoros. Rhonas feels to me like a straight improvement. Oketra mite b cool but seems like she'd struggle to be played from behind.

Black never gets the best card in a cycle so I'm not holding out too much hope for Bontu, but maybe he'll be interesting or playable OR BOTH

I think part of it might be that they tried to imitate Devotion. The Theros gods were set up so you could drop them early, but they wouldn't be swinging right away. This worked because they had activated and passive abilities that made it feel like they had a big influence even before they really hit the field.

The Amonkhet ones have a similar restriction on attacking and blocking, but don't have the same passive benefit that guarantees value even if you aren't meeting the condition. Instead, they have a vanilla keyword that is mostly flavor on some of them.

They really should have gone with a different approach. There's that flavortext from Gideon about how the gods are walking around the normal populace, so I don't think they needed the same drawback.

If anything, they should have made these guys really big, high-cost creatures with awesome effects, and then given them Convoke or something so it was easier to get them out.

I'd wager Bontu is a pay life/draw ability and can't attack or block unless you're below a certain amount. Probably has lifelink as the keyword though? Fuck it's gonna be meance isn't it

They are just different gods. Why can't gods be created?

Kefnet is a definite wincon for any hard control deck.
High P, evasive, with a protective ability, and instant draw, come on.
No format in which his mana costs would be acceptable supports draw-go anymore, that's his only fault.

I'm guessing Lifelink and his restriction/ability having to do with -1/-1 counters.
>Can't attack/block if there aren't at least two -1/-1 counters among all creatures.
>3B: put a -1/-1 counter on target creature

No idea on p/t and cmc, because I'm garbage at balancing.

I mean, let's be real here, the Theros gods could handle being a bit punchier in terms of divinity because if the other guy was packing Erase or Fade into Antiquity they're fucking done for.

Don't worry, so is Development.

Why do amonkhet gods need restrictions like the theros gods? Why does the red god have an attack restriction and haste?

Menace, cards in graveyard, discard effect

Because they're trying to clone the Theros gods and failing miserably. They should have just brought back devotion for them and made devotion a thing God type creatures have.

The real problem is that the rest of the card is boring as shit on all of them, really.
They all have bog-standard activated abilities we've seen a million times. The Theros gods had an activated ability AND a static ability. And dodged creature removal when they weren't on.
I can understand them not making them enchantment (or artifact/land) creatures. The fact that they're BORING I do not.
And the only reason I can think of for doing this is because they can drive cars.
The gods of Amonkhet are boring as shit because they have drivers' licenses.
WAY TO GO, DEVELOPMENT.

Rhonas feels like a god. Nothing like being indestructible while also being able to kill instantly. That and his drawback condition is actually playable

>Why does the red god have an attack restriction and haste
Holy fuck you're right, what a stinker. Almost as bad as this guy

>Why does the red god have an attack restriction and haste?
???? Because if you play it while you have 0 or 1 cards in hand you can attack with it? You know... how haste works??????????????

It wouldn't be too hard to actually do in a game, especially in Red, as by turn 4 you're probably only going to have a couple cards left anyway.

I think it is kind of stupid that all of their secondary effects are designed to enable their combat capability though. That just means that once you get them in a place where they can attack, you won't even really want to use their ability. If you have 3 other creatures, you're probably not hurting for 1/1 tokens. If you have 7 cards in your hand, you don't need more with a downside. If you have one or no cards and you're running something hellbent, then discarding for damage is dumb in comparison to just playing it.

I think Rhonas wins out partially because if you have a creature with 4 power, giving that creature even more power and trample is almost always useful.

Rhonas is just above and beyond the other Bolas gods. It's pretty hard not to have at least one creature with power 4 or greater while running green. As always best color gets the best toys

To be fair, you don't have to return a land with Birdhead. You can just draw if you want - the land return is a may.

I don't like that they reused the Theros style restrictions. If we're using a different pantheon of gods then why can't we get a different design space for them? Also the power level of is also a bit disappointing though Oketra and Rhonas are much better then the first two.

Also there is something to be said for the scale of them not being as impressive as the Theros gods. While I do think the artwork on them is fantastic they do just feel like giants as opposed to gods.

It might sound silly, but them not having weapons, unlike their Theros counterparts, reduces their scales. I mean, Purphoros hammer destroyed fucking MOUNTAINS to make creatures.

All I know is that Rhonas is going to be FOITIN ROUND DA WORLD

Oketra seems to be the only one that's actually equivalent, and sometimes better. I could probably see her as the Commander of a mono-white deck over other alternatives. Not sure about Standard.

I like Hazoret, she could maybe be decent alternative in Commander if you don't want to go the tokens route. In Standard maybe she could be decent as a curve topper in a RDW deck? Worst case scenario you still can ping your opponent to death while achieving an empty hand.

Rhonas is the easiest one to activate, but the fact it can't give trample to itself makes it much less valuable.

Kefnet seems nigh unplayable.

That's not that impressive though, since heliod was the worst or second worst of the monocolor Theros gods.

>And the only reason I can think of for doing this is because they can drive cars
Holy shit that's fuck genius, I'm brewing Now this is God-Racing right now

>Now this is God-Racing

I think they're weaker for flavor reasons. These gods are just the puppets of Nicol Bolas, whereas the Theros gods are born from the unique devotion-based magic of that plane.

Personally, I like Hazoret a lot. She has the most interesting restriction and the most interesting ability. Red is my favorite color, so I'm going to be biased towards her, but I honestly think she's got the best design. The others are really cool creatures, but they're really outclassed by other cycles of legends, such as the Phyrexian praetors or the Dragon legends from Tarkir.

In my opinion, all their abilities are 1 mana too expensive.

>This is not supposed to be a "let's shit on Amonkhet" thread.
Well it's shit so fuck you.

>Bontu is going to have Lifelink, activates based on life, and has an ability to pay to draw.
I'm not going to be happy about it but I'll still play Sobek tribal

Amonkhet gods are REALLY boring

It just feels like they slapped indestructible on like an uncommon cycle of creatures and slapped on some obtuse condition to get them online.

The Theros gods did it a lot better. They all had strange effects and felt their role.

>Now this is God-Racing

Fund this man

>not God Cards on Motorcycles

>black never gets the best in a cycle
I'd argue that Erebos is the most powerful of his cycle

depends on format. in standard it was certainly Thassa.

Bontu is almost guaranteed to have lifelink based on his Cartouche. His mana ability is either going to be draw/discard or making -1 counters.

They suck.

They're all just big durdly dudes with no interesting abilities at all.

Bontu has menace, the card was just spoiled.

...

green one would be good in a different standard meta.
>play servant of the conduit
>play snakefag
>have 9 damage on board
but instead thats just playing into mardu's plan

I think being Enchantment Creatures also makes the Theros gods much more interesting.

Even ignoring the added mechanical depth of that, the sparkly frames also help distinguish them.

They feel less divine because no devotion matters and they don't have the enchantment thing going on.

However the Johnny in me loves toying with how to exploit their eternal creature status. So far I've come up with crewing vehicles and working with Odric.

y'all underestimating that they still are undercosted indestructible permanents. I bet they'll be way better than everyone thinks

>guy plays red god after tactically dumping his whole hand
>his whole 5d chess algorithm has finally come to fruition and his god is indestructible (which is undercosted btw)
>grasp of darkness it
>m-m-m-m-muh indestructible

Are you talking about like standard?

Cause then yeah the Green and White god will probably find a way to slap Standard's blue swollen balls around a bit since its fucking standard and a card only needs to be okay to see a home there.

In any other format? No way

Can someone give me the quick rundown on Nicol Bolas

Current BBEG of MTG. Elder Dragon Planeswalker. Rivals with Ugin.

Bolas rules Amonkhet (if you see "God-Pharoh", that means Bolas), and a bunch of anons have voiced the opinion the entire civilization and culture on the plane is geared towards making sure that the planeswalker sparks of those with planeswalkers actually ignite. Some have also voiced that Bolas has some use for the rejects that don't have a spark and/or have a spark but won't be his minion.

Quick rundown on him

>Eldrazi bow down to Bolas
>in contact with the Phyrexians
>rumoured to possess psychic abilities
>controls Amonkhet with an iron fist
>owns lands and artifacts all over the multiverse
>direct descendant of an ancient bloodline
>will bankroll the first cities on Tarkir (Bolasgrad will be the first city)
>in the process of planeforming Zendikar as his personal planet
>owns basically every planeswalker spark editing research facility in the multiverse
>first designer planeswalkers will be Bolaswalkers
>said to have over 400+ loyalty
>ancient Kaladeshi scriptures tell of a dragon who will descend upon the multiverse and will bring an era of enlightenment and unprecedentet technological progress with him
>this is Nicol Bolas
>he owns spell research labs around the multiverse
>you likely have Nicol Bolas inside your deck right now
>every child has the mark of the Bolas implanted in them at birth
>Bolas is in regular communication with Theros gods, forwarding the word of Heliod to the Order of Heliud
>discovered the Eye of Ugin
>learned fluent Phyrexian in under a week
>Urza allows him full access to the evidence of Thran within the Caves of Koilos
>Guilds entrust their leadership with the dragon. There is no House Dimir, only House Bolas.
>Bolas is 100000 years old, from the space-time reference point of the base planeswalker
>In reality, he is a timeless being existing at all points of magic the gathering from Richard Garfield's original design to the end of the universe
>He has been able to access the Blinkmoth Serum since birth and has spoken about what he saw while he was newborn
>Nicol Bolas will guide planeswalkers into a new age of wisdom, peace and love

I'm pretty sure Eldrazi don't bow down to anyone. Ugin said Bolas let them free so whoever would have been trying to be in Bolas's way would be busy stopping the Eldrazi.

The joke

Your head

>The Gatewatch hates him

Nailed it for look and flavor.

Agreed. The mono color Theros gods might not have been the most interesting of the gods but the passive abilities did make them feel as deities.
They really should have gone with a different approach in design than just mimicing devotion without devotion.

It's really sad when the 2-color rare legendaries are way more interesting than the iconic creatures of this set.